SOCORRO, N.M., Sept., 23, 2005 – New Mexico Tech graduate student Yang Lu garnered the top award for “best student poster” at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center User Group Meeting VII, which was held earlier this month in Santa Fe and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Lu’s poster presentation, titled “Microstrain Evolution in a Single Crystal Superalloy using Neutron Diffraction — A Case of High-Temperature Tension,” details his recent research work on the development of a neutron diffraction technique used to investigate the nano-scale structure of a single crystal superalloy.

Lu, who is working toward earning a master of science degree in materials engineering at New Mexico Tech, also conducts research in superalloy creep behavior and deformation mechanisms at the university. His faculty research advisor is Tech materials engineering professor Bhaskar S. Majumdar.

Lu previously made a similar presentation on his research work earlier this summer at the 17th Annual Rio Grande Symposium on Advanced Materials in Albuquerque.

“I am deeply proud to be a graduate student here at New Mexico Tech,” Lu says, “and feel lucky to be able to study and live here. All the faculty, staff, and students in Tech’s Department of Materials Engineering have been particularly helpful in getting me started in a new research career and making a smooth transfer into what is a new area of study for me.”

Lu came to New Mexico Tech at the start of the 2004 Fall Semester, after having graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physics from Nanjing University in China.

In addition to his academic and research pursuits at Tech, Lu also currently serves as chair of the New Mexico Tech Chinese Students and Scholars Association and is a member of the local student chapters of The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society (TMS) and ASM International, the Materials Information Society.